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Silverton - Ice & Island Lake with CA and 3/4 Curleys

July 14, 2017 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 50-70, cloudy - rainy

Comments:
Accidently slept in and through the start this morning, oh well! A bummer, but good to sleep. After that, we hung out in town, doing a bit of work, before convening with the Curleys to go on an adventure.

Island Lake is one of the iconic scenes of the Hardrock course, and it's not too far out of town. We convoyed about 10 miles north of town, on a drive-able dirt road, to the trailhead. From there, it's "only" 3ish miles and 2700' climbing.

Connor, CA and I busted out ahead with a moderate hike pace, while DMC and Christine hung back. GOOD chats with CPC and very easy effort as we made our way up a really nice single track and lots of switches. Before long, we made it up to a really cool basin filled with plants and flowers -- a big change from both the northern Sierras and Cascades, which tend to be really try in the summer.

And, as I found find out later that night, the "climb - basin - ridge" pattern is another feature of the San Juans. We climbed up the steep ridge to another basin, where Ice Lake was. COOL, blue-green lake. About then, the weather turned, so after waiting a bit, CA and I pushed on toward Island Lake, while CPC waited for his parents.

We crossed a small adjacent ridge to get to Island, but we didn't stay long, since it was rainy and windy. From there, we descended back down.

CA did awesome, keeping a great pace on some technical, and at times wet and muddy, terrain. I struggled, since I forgot our trail shoes in town!

GREAT run, and it didn't feel too hard at all. We changed in the van, as it rained pretty hard, then drove back into town...where it was dry! Found our shoes, then drove up to Ouray.

Once there:
- checked in at the AS, where we had just missed the leaders come through (included Kilian + dislocated shoulder)
- went for some dinner
- came back and hung out at the AS as the sun set. Cool AS at a little park in the middle of town.
- got ready to pace!